Venues

Style

I seriously need to be friends with this lovely Chicago bride and groom, because they. are. awesome. They took a simple slogan, “friends, food and music,” and turned it into one of the most amazing days that I have ever seen. I kid you not, I have literally been blown away by the fabulousness that is this wedding. From a Beatles cover band (I can’t even begin to tell you how amazing I think that is) to a circus marching band (ditto), this was one fun and uber-gorgeous soiree. Nika Vaughan was responsible for the bride’s glamorous look (stunning) and we have J Wiley Photography to thank for every brilliant image. Trust me, you don’t want to miss a single minute. See it all here!

From the Bride… Carlos and I began planning our May 2011 wedding from a place of wanting to give the world to each other, and like many others, we had limited resources to do so. In having the initial conversations, we decided that the most important thing for us was to simply have a day where we could be around all of our favorite people and for all of us to have a memorable time together. We wanted our loved ones to see the city as we see it, to share the foods that we enjoy, and more importantly, to feel the comfort around their new extended circle in celebrating this important day with us. But we would be fooling ourselves if I left out that I wanted to have gorgeous makeup, Carlos wanted to be GQ-esque from head to toe, and we both wanted our day to be captured in amazing pictures to cherish in the days to come.

So, how do we balance the more meaningful aspects of a wedding with the relatively “little” things? With perspective, prioritizing, and with remembering that while it is an important milestone – in the end, it is essentially one big awesome theme party (with the theme being our union). In my experience, all that a good party needs is a little bit of planning (maybe a little bit of unpredictability), and a whole lot of friends, food, and music. In my case: our family and close friends were our party crowd, tapas and amazing desserts were our food choice, and a marching circus band procession and our Beatles cover band (My wedding surprise gift to my husband – yay!) were our music. “Friends, food, and music” sounds deceptively simple, but I stand by that.